User:Geist/Morrowind Weapon Tests

What's this?

This is a project that attempts to provide definitive answers to questions about the quality of weapons, such as:

• What's the best weapon in the game?
• Is x weapon better than y or z?
• How good is x weapon?

by providing objective data obtained from ingame tests. It's a work in progress, and more weapons are planned to be added in the future. The numbers here are for Morrowind only. OpenMW does not accurately emulate melee/ranged combat mechanics as of 2024.

How are these tests performed?

A total of 14 different enemy types that are commonly encountered in endgame areas are spawned and fought, while the time to kill them is measured. Most enemies have their health increased via console command to make it easier to acquire accurate results. Every enemy type has 10 recorded kills to reduce RNG to a reasonable minimum. Before measurements are taken, some time is spent experimenting with each weapon trying to figure out how to achieve optimal DPS, for example what attacks to use or how long exactly you have to charge an attack for the best practical results.

Tests are performed on the PC version with MGE XE, MCP and no mods that alter gameplay. All MCP features that affect gameplay, such as changes to Absorb or Disintegrate, have been disabled. Questionable behaviours, such as the minimum damage, charging speed, animations or reflectable melee hits have been double-checked in a 100% vanilla install on Steam.

What are the rules?

1. Only premade equipment is used, for two reasons: First, self-enchanted items are way too powerful, and second, using them would increase the scope of this project to unreasonable levels.
2. 120 Strength is used instead of 135 because it doesn't take too long to get and most characters should have this much for the majority of their playthroughs.
3. Keening is used with 100 Strength instead of 120, because you need to downgrade the Fist of Randagulf Right Gauntlet to Wraithguard to wear it and Sunder safely, but Keening lacks Sunder's 20 Strength bonus to make up for that loss.
4. Weapons are repaired at specific points to give meaning to durability. Weapons that failed the durability test are marked as such and should be considered a bit weaker than other weapons near them.
5. Enchanted weapons always have charges, unless their maximum is very low (<50). Akatosh's Ring to reach 110 Enchant is used for those weapons that require it.
6. For ranged weapons, the best projectiles that can be acquired in unlimited quantities are used.

Observations

• The effective minimum damage of some weapons is higher than what is listed on the tooltip. I found it impossible to reach the listed numbers with the tested weapons, even when using a macro to hold down a click for the minimum possible time of 1ms. When clicking manually, as should be the case during normal gameplay, the lowest reachable numbers were quite a bit higher in some cases: Chrysamere - 11 (chop), Bound/Daedric Spear - 12 (thrust), Sunder - 18 (chop), Spear of Bitter Mercy - 24 (thrust), Mace of Aevar Stone-Singer - 37 (slash), Spear of the Hunter - 44 (thrust). Without actively trying, the lowest numbers are higher still, which can make spam-clicking minimum attacks against low health enemies extremely effective. The Bound Spear, for example, averages to around ~14 minimum damage while the Spear of Bitter Mercy goes up to ~30. With the damage modifier from strength, this is enough to one-shot many low level enemies.
• Animations do not accurately coincide with damage range. Some weapons (e.g. Mace of Aevar Stone-Singer, Trueflame, Spears, Bows) can hit for their maximum damage or close to it before the animation is complete, while others (e.g. Fang of Haynekhtnamet, japanese one-handed weapons including Gold-/Eltonbrand) haven't reached their maximum damage until a while after the animation is complete. This can make affected weapons significantly better or worse than paper numbers or animations suggest.
• Some weapons use animations that do not match the charging speed for their attacks. Sunder takes around 1 second to reach maximum damage (the same as Mace of Aevar Stone-Singer) but uses animations that grant its swings a much faster startup, release and lower delay. Frostgore is the opposite, with a charging speed on par with the fastest Short Blades, but uses very slow animations.
• Some weapons can have variable/inconsistent attack speed. Little is known about this mysterious behaviour. A theory is that player view direction and/or framerate can cause animation cancel during the recovery frames of the weapons' animation.
• Enchantments that are set "on Touch" will cast the corresponding spell, whose hitbox differs from those used by weapons. When hitting an enemy with a weapon, the spell is triggered but can still physically miss. Easily observable when using spears, but against certain creatures (e.g. Mudcrabs, Verminous Fabricants) the range of the enchantment is significantly shorter than even the shortest weapons.
• The melee attacks of weapons that have an "on Target" enchantment can be reflected as long as the weapon has enough charges to trigger the spell. Not only does this make using such weapons against anything with a significant amount of Reflect a miserable experience, it can also trigger what appears to be a variant of the Soultrap glitch if the weapon has other effects (e.g. Light of Day), which will permanently brick your character with effects that cannot be removed by any known means, including the console.
• Enemies can still be knocked down while they are paralyzed. Besides receiving 50% increased physical damage, knocked down enemies can be identified by the message box with their name above them. This message box can usually only be seen out of combat and is otherwise hidden, unless the enemy is knocked down.
• Winterwound Dagger and Mehrunes' Razor crash the game when they break a piece of armor, but the Daedric Crescent does not.

Results

TTK = Time to kill in seconds, weighted average of 140 measured kills per weapon

Rank	Weapon	TTK	Type	Grip	Enchantable	Attack	Charge	Notes
1	Dwarven Dart	4.19	Marksman	1h	yes	best	max	Farmable in Bamz-Amschend
2	Mace of Aevar Stone-Singer	6.63	Blunt Weapon	1h	no	best	max	Longer reach, max damage is early, deals double damage against werewolves
3	Hopesfire	7.22	Long Blade	1h	no	best	min
4	Gravedigger	7.30	Long Blade	2h	no	best	max
5	Spear of the Hunter	7.34	Spear	2h	no	best	min	Charged attacks are almost equal, but much harder to reliably achieve max DPS with
6	Sunder	8.31	Blunt Weapon	1h	no	best	max	Max damage is late
7	Nordic Silver Battleaxe (Heart-Fang)	8.66	Axe	2h	no	best	max	Strongest weapon enchantment in the game, deals double damage against werewolves
8	Trueflame	8.73	Long Blade	1h	no	best	max	Max damage is early, chop is slightly better (8.32) but not useful in practice
9	Spear of Bitter Mercy	8.88	Spear	2h	no	best	max	Max damage is early
10	Eltonbrand	9.03	Long Blade	1h	no	best	max	Max damage is late
11	Bound / Daedric Battle Axe	9.24	Axe	2h	no / yes	best	max
12	Veloth's Judgement	9.30	Blunt Weapon	2h	no	best	max	Knockdowns for days
13	Fang of Haynekhtnamet	9.33	Short Blade	1h	no	best	max	Max damage is late
14	King's Oath	9.59	Long Blade	2h	no	best	max
15	Chrysamere	10.13	Long Blade	2h	no	best	max
16	Stalhrim Longsword of Flame	10.20	Long Blade	1h	no	best	max	Max damage is late
17	Daedric Warhammer	10.37	Blunt Weapon	2h	yes	best	max
18	Goldbrand	10.83	Long Blade	1h	no	best	max	Max damage is late
19	Stalhrim Longsword	11.04	Long Blade	1h	yes	best	max	Max damage is late
20	Daedric Dai-katana	11.43	Long Blade	2h	yes	best	max
21	BiPolar Blade	11.47	Long Blade	2h	no	best	max	Hitting calmed NPCs counts as a crime
22	Ice Blade of the Monarch	11.55	Long Blade	2h	no	best	max
23	Daedric Claymore	11.63	Long Blade	2h	yes	best	max
24	Skull Crusher	11.94	Blunt Weapon	1h	no	best	max
25	Goblin Club*	11.96	Blunt Weapon	1h	yes	best	max	Max damage is late, crippling low durability
26	Her Ebony Scimitar	11.97	Long Blade	1h	no	best	max
27	Daedric Crescent	12.14	Long Blade	2h	no	best	max
28	Silver Staff of Paralysis*	12.21	Blunt Weapon	2h	no	best	max	Crippling low durability, deals double damage against werewolves
29	Shadowsting	12.41	Long Blade	1h	no	best	max	On Target enchantment - melee attacks can be reflected
30	Adamatium Axe	12.88	Axe	2h	yes	best	max	Normal weapon - needs to be enchanted to bypass resistance
31	Umbra Sword	13.42	Long Blade	2h	no	best	max
32	Stalhrim Mace	14.11	Blunt Weapon	1h	yes	best	max	Slightly longer reach
33	Daedric Katana	14.66	Long Blade	1h	yes	best	max	Max damage is late
34	Bound / Daedric Longsword	14.75	Long Blade	1h	no / yes	best	max
35	Nordic Silver Battleaxe	15.02	Axe	2h	yes	best	max	Deals double damage against werewolves
36	Ebony Scimitar	15.05	Long Blade	1h	yes	best	max
37	Silver Sword of Paralysis*	15.30	Long Blade	1h	no	best	max	Low durability, deals double damage against werewolves
38	Bound Spear	15.34	Spear	2h	no	best	max	Max damage is early, relatively low durability
39	Stormforge	15.35	Spear	2h	no	best	max	Max damage is early, relatively low durability
40	Sixth House Bell Hammer	15.48	Blunt Weapon	2h	yes	best	max	Normal weapon - needs to be enchanted to bypass resistance
41	Daedric Spear	15.81	Spear	2h	yes	best	max	Max damage is early, relatively low durability
42	Daedric War Axe	15.85	Axe	1h	yes	best	max
43	Nordic Axe of Paralysis	16.20	Axe	1h	no	best	max	Deals double damage against werewolves
44	Ebony Shortsword	16.68	Short Blade	1h	yes	best	min	Attack speed fluctuating between 1.35 and 2 (depending on view?), relatively low durability
45	Berserker Silver Battleaxe	17.06	Axe	2h	no	best	max	On Target enchantment - melee attacks can be reflected, deals double damage against werewolves
46	Scourge	17.32	Blunt Weapon	1h	no	best	max
47	Last Rites	17.70	Axe	2h	no	best	max	On Target enchantment - melee attacks can be reflected
48	Stalhrim War Axe	18.15	Axe	1h	yes	best	max	Max damage is late
49	Silver Axe of Paralysis*	18.22	Axe	1h	no	best	max	Low durability, deals double damage against werewolves
50	Mace of Molag Bal	18.39	Blunt Weapon	1h	no	best	max
51	Magebane / Glass Claymore	18.59	Long Blade	2h	no / yes	best	max	Low Durability
52	Black Hands Dagger	18.62	Short Blade	1h	no	best	max	Max damage is late, high charge usage (110 Enchant), relatively low durability
53	Cleaver of St. Felms / Ebony War Axe	19.19	Axe	1h	no / yes	best	max
54	Mehrunes' Razor*	19.54	Short Blade	1h	no	best	min	High charge usage (110 Enchant), low durability, crashes the game when breaking armor
55	Winterwound Dagger	19.56	Short Blade	1h	no	best	min	High charge usage (110 Enchant), low durability, crashes the game when breaking armor
56	Daedric Wakizashi	19.81	Short Blade	1h	yes	best	max	Max damage is late, relatively low durability
57	Flawed Dwemer Jinksword	21.11	Short Blade	1h	no	chop	min	Attack speed influenced by framerate?, low durability, higher attack speed than slash
58	Dagger of Symmachus	21.32	Short Blade	1h	no	best	min	Attack speed influenced by framerate?
59	Stormfang	22.09	Long Blade	2h	no	best	max	Relatively low durability, on Target enchantment - melee attacks can be reflected
60	Daedric Mace	22.11	Blunt Weapon	1h	yes	best	max
61	Daedric Shortsword	23.40	Short Blade	1h	yes	best	max	Max damage is late, relatively low durability
62	Trebonius' Staff	23.88	Blunt Weapon	2h	no	best	max	On Target enchantment - melee attacks can be reflected, low durability, Real Life Blind 100% on Self
63	Frostgore*	23.99	Short Blade	1h	no	best	max	Max damage is early, high charge usage (110 Enchant), crippling low durability
64	Bound Dagger*	24.29	Short Blade	1h	no	best	min	Low durability
65	Daedric Tanto	25.81	Short Blade	1h	yes	chop	min	Max damage is late, relatively low durability, higher attack speed than slash
66	Stalhrim Dagger	26.33	Short Blade	1h	yes	chop	min	Low durability, higher attack speed than slash
67	Light of Day	27.75	Blunt Weapon	1h	no	best	max	Triggers soultrap glitch - DO NOT USE AGAINST REFLECTIVE ENEMIES, max damage is late, on Target enchantment - melee attacks can be reflected, relatively low durability
68	Keening (100 str)	28.71	Short Blade	1h	no	best	min	Relatively low durability
69	Soul Drinker / Daedric Dagger*	34.87	Short Blade	1h	no / yes	chop	min	Low durability, around 20% higher attack speed than slash
70	Daedric Club	36.54	Blunt Weapon	1h	yes	best	min	Relatively low durability
71	Hand-to-hand (skill 120)	197.65	Hand-to-hand	2h	no	best	max	Max damage is early, yes it's that bad, no it's not secretly OP, sorry
?	Sunder (jury rig)	7.54	Blunt Weapon	1h	no	best	max	Costs 200-something permanent max health and certain parts of the main quest, unless you want to be stuck lugging around a second Wraithguard that doesn't even work but needs to be carried anyway for the other one to do its job
?	Keening (jury rig)	25.26	Short Blade	1h	no	best	min

* = failed durability test

Charts

Used Equipment

Used Equipment	Possible Alternatives	Notes
Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw		No competitor.
Necromancer's Amulet	Hunter's Amulet of Strength	Hunter's Amulet is strictly better for combat but perhaps inferior for general gameplay, and acquired too late to be considered competitive. Also prevents you from getting the spear.
Glass Left Pauldron	Daedric Left Pauldron	Glass over Daedric because lower encumbrance feels more beneficial than higher armor rating.
Glass Right Pauldron	Daedric Right Pauldron
Ebony Mail		No competitor. Cuirass of Savior's Hide may be considered for Altmer to be reflect-immune against Magicka.
Fist of Randagulf Left Gauntlet	Her Hand's Left Gauntlet	5 Strength is generally better than 20 Agility (above 100), but rarely lowers the number of hits required for a kill by itself.
Fist of Randagulf Right Gauntlet	Wraithguard (only if required)	Right Fist of Randagulf is hands down the best for everything. Nothing else can compete with 20 Strength.
Daedric Greaves (Therana)		Daedric Greaves with an effective weight of 4. No competitor.
Boots of the Apostle	Glass Boots, Her Hand's Boots, Boots of Blinding Speed	Saving even more encumbrance, minor boost to Agility doesn't seem worth the additional weight. The Boots of Blinding Speed are generally incredibly overpowered, but make it harder to move indoors and break quickly in combat.
(no shirt)		Saving encumbrance by not wearing a shirt. Royal Signet Ring makes Mara's Blouse redundant.
Tailored Trousers		Only pants in the game with a constant effect enchantment.
(no skirt)		No skirt with a useful enchantment in the game. Saving encumbrance by not wearing one.
Ralen Family Belt	Belt of Orc Strength	Only belt in the game with a constant effect enchantment.
Redas Robe of Deeds	Whitewalker	Redas Robe is -47 encumbrance. Whitewalker's 50 Chameleon equals 40 Agility worth of evasion. Also a stylistic choice.
Ring of the Wind	Akatosh's Ring (if required)	Surprisingly there is no ring in the game with an offensive constant effect enchantment.
Royal Signet Ring		No competitor. It enables the use of Paralyze weapons and allows switching out multiple other pieces of equipment for more beneficial alternatives.
Darksun Shield	Eleidon's Ward, Ward of Akavir	Darksun Shield is partially made redundant by the Royal Signet Ring, but Night Eye and Restore Fatigue (with very heavy weapons) can still be useful. Ward of Akavir can be considered for its minor enchantment when using two-handed weapons, but will break when used for blocking due to low durability.

Notes

• During regular gameplay, slow/hard hitting weapons should perform better than in these tests, because you can begin to charge your swing when you see an enemy, before they reach you. Releasing a fully charged swing when an enemy enters melee range grants you a "free" extra swing at time 0, minus the recovery animation.
• The DPS is measured in 1v1 combat. Weapons with long lasting damage enchantments (anything higher than the swing speed of the weapon, so basically anything above 1s) will perform better when fighting multiple enemies at once, as you can hit the next enemy while the enchantment keeps working on the previous one, without overwriting it as is the case when fighting a single enemy.